Carbon Storage in Cold Temperate Ecosystems in Southern Patagonia, Argentina

PERI P.L.

Biomass and Remote Sensing of Biomass

InTech Publisher

Año: 2011; p. 213 - 226

Recently there has been an increasing interest of research related to improve the understanding of carbon (C) sequestration mainly under Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change where countries can count this sequestration as a contribution to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Data on C storage in forests, grasslands and shrublands are essential for understanding the importance of rapidly increasing level of CO2 in the atmosphere and its potential effect on global climate change. In South America, mean annual temperature is predicted to increase by 3-4 °C in both summer and winter between 30° and 55° SL. Such an increase would have significant effects on Patagonian ecosystems. Therefore, the aim of this manuscript was to describe the amount of C in both above- and below-ground components for the main cold temperate ecosystems in Southern Patagonia (Argentina). In particular, the aim was to quantify the C storage in an age sequence and among crown classes for individual trees grown at different site qualities of deciduous N. antarctica forests in Southern Patagonia and under silvopastoral use, and to quantify the amount of C for main grassland steppe ecosystems including the effect of grazing.